Contributions of lake-effect period precipitation to the hydroclimate of the Great Salt Lake basin

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Title Contributions of lake-effect period precipitation to the hydroclimate of the Great Salt Lake basin
Publication Type thesis
School or College College of Mines & Earth Sciences
Department Atmospheric Sciences
Author Yeager, Kristen Noelle
Date 2012-05
Description This study examines the contribution of lake-effect precipitation to the coolseason (16 Sep - 15 May) hydroclimate of the Great Salt Lake basin. Lake-effect periods are identified based on the visual inspection of KMTX radar reflectivity imagery. Quantitative lake-effect period precipitation estimates are generated using high temporal resolution radar-derived precipitation estimates to disaggregate daily COOP and SNOTEL precipitation gauge observations. This preserves the daily precipitation gauge totals and enables the separation of accumulated precipitation into lake-effect and nonlake- effect periods. Evaluation of the method at two stations (Salt Lake City International Airport and Alta-Collins) demonstrates that the method works well for estimating climatological lake-effect period totals, with some random error in hourly estimates. Accumulated precipitation from 128 lake-effect periods indicates that Great Salt Lake-effect period precipitation contributes modestly (8.4% or less) to the cool-season precipitation of the Great Salt Lake basin with the largest contributions to the south and east of the Great Salt Lake. Lake-effect period contributions are highly variable from cool-season to cool-season and are dominated by intense episodic lake-effect periods. The most lake-effect period precipitation falls in the months of Oct and Nov. Lake-effect period precipitation also reaches a maximum when the 700-hPa wind is between 300-360°, corresponding to the longest fetch across the Great Salt Lake.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Great Salt Lake; Hydroclimate; Lake effect; Lake-effect; Precipitation; Precipitation climatology
Dissertation Institution University of Utah
Dissertation Name Master of Science
Language eng
Rights Management Copyright © Kristen Noelle Yeager 2012
Format application/pdf
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 4,434,110 bytes
Identifier etd3/id/3417
ARK ark:/87278/s6mh0xr9
Setname ir_etd
ID 196981
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6mh0xr9
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